CNN relying on comic Kamau Bell to get people talkng

The CNN series “United Shades of America,” appears absurd only at first glance.

What seemed to some like a novelty when it launched last year — lefty comic W. Kamau Bell exploring controversial topics — soon became as serious as the Electoral College.

In the first episode, Bell met with KKK members. In the second, he visited inmates at San Quentin State Prison in California.

When the eight-episode sophomore season kicked off April 30, “United Shades” continued its theme of what might be called lighthearted heaviness: Bell headed to the violence-wracked South Side of Chicago and a Maryland town considered one of the most diverse in the nation.

Also this season, the series is beefing up the observational standup that wraps around the segments. (On the difference between immigrants and refugees: “When you move out of your apartment at noon ... and when you move out at 2 in the morning.”)

Still, the topics are not laughing matters.

This might seem the wrong time for a Kumbaya show in which a black liberal from the West Coast seeks dialogue with Trump voters in coal country. Or, Bell argues, it could be the best moment for it.

“As the left, we have to get outside of ourselves,” he said. “It sounds so simple and so corny, but what we need is a real conversation. People in Hollywood can condescend to the way a lot of other people are living. I like living in Berkeley, but I know Berkeley’s not the world.”

Bell, 44,

sees economic anxiety as a key driver of racism and thinks that most people would be more open-minded if their lives were just improving.